USA - Florida. The Florida Supreme Court overturned Clemente Javier Aguirre's death sentence

The Florida Supreme Court overturned Clemente Javier Aguirre's conviction and death sentence. Aguirre, 36, from Honduras, was convicted and sentenced to death in 2006 for the June 2004 murders of Cheryl Williams, 47, and Carol Bareis, 68, both of whom were stabbed to death in their home. The victims, a mother and daughter, lived in a mobile home next door to Aguirre. Aguirre will get new trial based on new evidence, the Court ruled Thursday. Aguirre, an undocumented immigrant from Honduras, initially told authorities that he didn't know anything about the murders because he was in the U.S. illegally and didn't want to be deported. He asked to talk to police again on the day he was initially questioned and said he found the bodies when he went into a home to get a beer, according to the Innocence Project of New York. Aguirre, 36, told deputies that he wandered into the murder scene before dawn that day, June 17, 2004, and discovered the bodies, checked them for signs of life then left. Their blood was found on his shorts and shoes. The 10-inch chef's knife that authorities say was used to kill both was found on the ground between Aguirre's yard and the victims'. It was part of a set used at the restaurant where Aguirre worked and had both victims' blood on it. Aguirre told jurors that when he was inside, he saw it, picked it up and carried it outside. His bloody clothes were found in a plastic bag on top of a nearby shed. During Aguirre's trial, the jury recommended a death sentence for Williams' murder on a 7-5 vote and a 9-3 vote for Bareis' murder. Aguirre filed a post-conviction appeal in 2014, claiming that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to investigate other suspects, including Samantha Williams, the daughter of Cheryl Williams, and additional DNA evidence. After Aguirre was sent to death row, experts identified 8 drops of her blood in the trailer. Immediately after the homicides, she told Seminole County deputies that she had argued with her mother the evening before and had stormed out and spent the night with her boyfriend. Her mother and grandmother were alive when she left, she told deputies. In his appeal to the Seminole County Circuit Court, Aguirre claimed that Samantha Williams confessed to killing her mother and grandmother. The court ruled Samantha Williams' statements inadmissible because they were made to a 3rd party. The Supreme Court on Thursday overruled the circuit court's denial of Aguirre’s post-conviction motions, making way for a new trial. At a 2013 hearing, she testified that she sometimes flew into rages and was severely mentally ill. She had been involuntarily detained while medical experts determined whether she was a threat to herself or others 60 times, she testified. After Aguirre's conviction, on five occasions she told friends and neighbors that she killed her mother and grandmother, the Florida Supreme Court wrote. She told one friend "that the demons had made her do it," the high court noted. That and the new DNA findings, the Florida Supreme Court ruled, was evidence enough to justify a new trial.